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Engineers connect cables between the bow of the Costa Concordia and the control room platform ahead of the start of a salvage operation to remove the ship from the water in Isola del Giglio, Italy, Sept. 16, 2013.

The crippled Costa Concordia cruise ship was pulled completely upright early Tuesday after a complicated, 19-hour operation to wrench it from its side where it capsized last year off Tuscany, with officials declaring it a "perfect" end to a daring and unprecedented engineering feat.

The procedure, known as "parbuckling," was never been carried out on a vessel as large as the Costa Concordia before.

The wreckage of the Costa Concordia is seen before the start of the salvage operation, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Marco Secchi/Getty Images

A detail of the counterweights and cables attached to the Costa Concordia ship, lying on its side on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Andrea Sinibaldi/AP

Titan and Micoperi workers are seen on the stricken Costa Concordia, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

The Costa Concordia ship lies on its side off the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Italy, Monday morning, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Andrew Medichini/AP

The Costa Concordia is readied for the salvage operation, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Marco Secchi/Getty Images

Titan and Micoperi workers look at the stricken Costa Concordia as the parbuckling project to pull the ship up is prepared, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Laura Lezza/Getty Images

Engineers at work on the Costa Concordia before the start of the salvage operation, Sept. 16, 2013.

Credit: Marco Secchi/Getty Images

A dark line, marking a previously submerged part, gives evidence of the movement of the Costa Concordia ship, lying on its side on the Tuscan Island of Giglio, Sept. 16, 2013.

Some 6,000 tons of force were applied using a complex system of pulleys and counterweights. "We saw the detachment" of the ship's hull from the reef thanks to undersea cameras, engineer Sergio Girotto told reporters.

Views of the deck of the submerged Costa Concordia, from June 2012 (left), and on Sept. 16, 2013 (center, right), show the progress of righting the capsized ship as the parbuckling operation commences.